Idaho Chinook Salmon Update 4/25/12

By idfg-vosborn on Thursday, Apr 26th, 2012 2:53pm MDT

Here's good news for all you Chinook salmon anglers! The Chinook salmon are starting to pour over Bonneville Dam.

Based on the number of PIT tagged fish that have come over Bonneville Dam to date (4-25-12), our model projects that we will have a good salmon run this year. The actual run size projection for each of our release sites (sites we release our smolts) are provided in the table below. If the salmon keep coming back like they are, these run estimates will only continue to climb. Based on these counts, fishing should get real good in around three weeks in the Lewiston area, and about five weeks in the Riggins area depending on flows. If flows maintain above 40,000 cfs in the Salmon River, it could take considerably longer for these fish to get to the Riggins area fishery.

Who will be the first to catch a salmon in Idaho? - Joe Dupont, Clearwater Regional Fish Manager